05-03-2020, 03:08 PM
(05-03-2020, 08:24 AM)David Horn Wrote:(05-02-2020, 01:14 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Science takes time. Politicians take time. Bureaucratic establishments take time. Systems take time to adjust. While all that time is being taken, the entire money related system is losing money hand over fist. The State of Minnesota is about 5 billion in the hole or short as far as TAX REVENUES with no end in sight as far as the virus goes right now.
Look, I'm going to write something really radical: money is fake. Nothing in society actually creates money except the Federal Reserve and that's just electronic transfers from out of the ether. The one and only function money serves in society: it's a transaction lubricant. It allows you, in the HVAC business, to buy groceries, rent a movie and pay for your kid's college, without having to set up a messy barter system. And savings? That's just a reserve for future spending.
The real value of money is what one can get with it. Much more stuff can be bought with a South Korean won than with a North Korean won, and the cause should be obvious. In fact the euro, the (Chinese) renminbi, the US dollar, and the Japanese yen are all welcome in North Korean shops. The art of issuing money is keeping it common enough to be in everyone's hands but rare enough to have value.
Classic-Xer Wrote:We have a portion of the workforce out there working and interacting with people/customers and placing themselves at risk as we speak. In short, the shit ain't going away for years and the shit has most likely been around for longer than a month and a half. That's where we are at in my opinion. I think I probably already had it back in late December/early January. I'll let you know for sure whenever the tests that our governor and his team keeps telling us about as being here then telling us why it isn't here yet and then telling us it should be here in a week then extending it being here for another week or two and then extending it another month or so. The job of a doctor or nurse is to advise not dictate. The job of a scientist is to advise not dictate. The job of Democratic politician living of the wealth and success of an American based nation is to lead not follow and not speak to me while in a room with reporters and members of his team without wearing masks themselves. It's hypocritical and sends the wrong message and hurts themselves in the process.
A lot of brick-bats here, but most poorly aimed. Yes, we have people on the front lines with too little support -- medical and financial. Whose fault is that? Blaming Democrats is absurd, when the GOP is leading the charge for doing all the wrong things -- including Trump's explicit support of armed militia groups to "reopen the economy". Note: this is exactly what happened in 1918 too. It didn't go well then, and isn't likely to go well now.[/quote]
As I have noticed, stores have been laying off older workers and replacing them with younger workers who are supposedly less likely to get serious consequences from contracting COVID-19. It would be better if those older workers had some savings on which to fall back, but the priority of Corporate America has been to charge as much as they can get away with through monopolization and to pay workers as little as possible by constraining opportunity. People grossly underpaid do not have the means with which to save.
(mostly to Classic X'er)
Donald Trump's response has been an unmitigated disaster. South Korea has done far better than we have. Sure it has a more authoritarian culture, but the South Korean Government didn't mess around. China seems to have localized the epidemic (if you believe its media, but there is outside verification). Just when state Governors get a few things right and prevent the death of a huge percentage of their citizens over fifty, Trump calls for measure that would undo those correct responses by calling for people to "liberate" their states -- and unleash COVID-19.
Trump has exploited the worst currents in American political life to get elected, and as President he exploits those worst currents in life to protect "his" economy. Democrats, and in a few cases Republicans, have called Trump on this. Until the number of new cases falls we are better off with a 1930's economy for a couple of years than with a death rate approaching that of the Black Death.
If any good comes from this Crisis (and I see COVID-19 as its culmination), then it will be the unforeseen consequences. 3T behavior that made us both medically and financially vulnerable will be highly disreputable in a very short time.
Life complying with state shutdowns is miserable. Try living under a respirator, in which case you have only about a 20% chance of survival and have little freedom of movement.
Let's think of some other manifestation of pointless death. Survivors of the Holocaust, about the most pointless mass death that ever existed (rightly) reminded people of the loss of loved ones and good friends from before the Holocaust. People aren't even able to mourn the losses of loved ones as they usually do when the funeral homes are obliged to limit the number of visitors to honor the dead. This is a truly fcuked-up time in American history, one that will have ugly reverberations and recriminations for years. Some grandparents will never take grandchildren out to fish or share the secrets of baking a great pie or jam. In recent years the elderly have been active as long as possible, extending their potential for making the world a better place past retirement age, especially in cultural achievements. That may be over.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.